■OfC 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 900 767 



pH8^ 



t)4TH Congress 
Id Session 



SENATE 



Document 
No. 361 



766 

''' , THREE YEARS OF DEMOCRACY 

5py 1 



SHALL WE HAVE PEACE OR WAR? 



IW* 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED 

BEFORE THE DEMOCRACY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE ON 

THE OCCASION OF THEIR ANNUAL BANQUET 

HELD IN THE CITY OF CONCORD, 

N. H., ON MARCH 16, 1916 



BY 

Hon. ROBERT L. OWEN 

/■ 

United States Senator from Oklahoma 




PRESENTED BY MR. HOLLIS 

March 20, 1916. — Ordered to be prbted 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1916 






D. of D. 
MAR 28 I9I6 






ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE DEMOCRACY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, AT 
CONCORD, N. H., MARCH 16, 1916. 



By Senator Robert L. Oaven. 



Gentlemen of the New Hampshire Democracy, fellow countrymen, 
it gratified me to yield to the invitation and the demand of my be- 
loved colleague, Senator Hollis, to speak to you to-night as the repre- 
sentatives of the Democracy of New Hampshire. 

In the highest and truest sense, democracy is a religion, moving the 
hearts and souls of men toward justice, human brotherhood, and 
human betterment through self-government by the people. Its prin- 
ciples move many men of many parties, in many nations — from New 
Hampshire to California, and from the United States to France, 
from Persia to China, and from the republics of South Africa to 
those of Australasia. 

The Republican Party, when it was organized, in 1856, to fight 
slavery, showed a clearer conception of true democracy than did the 
old Democratic Party of that date, which condoned, and even de- 
fended, slavery. Only when the Re])ublican Party was allured from 
its high ideals, through the decades following the Civil War, by the 
corrupting influences of corporate power and self interests, which 
seized possession of the party management and party control, did 
the Republican Party fall from its high estate and finally become 
the recognized champion of organized private greed. As this 
gradually took place there came a new birth of a ])urer democ- 
racy within the ranks of those who still clung to the old Democratic 
Party and its best ideals. 

It may be fairly said that only with the advent of Woodrow 
Wilson, three short years ago, was the Democratic Party completely 
restored in the affections and confidence of the people of the United 
States, and then for the first time in 60 years was it able to give 
concrete expression to its desire to make effective its principles of 
human brotherhood and human betterment. 

We must now give an account to the people of our stewardship. 
What have we done and what do we propose? Have we been faith- 
ful to our pledges? 

HAVE WE BROUGHT DISASTER OR PROSPERITY? 

My fellow countrymen, when the Democracy in November, 1912, 
received the mandate of the American people to assume the reins 
of government all the great powers of special privilege, who have 
regarded the Republican Party as an instrumentality through which 
the invisible government might control the Government of the people 
of the United States, joined in a chorus prophesying hard times, in 
the obvious hope by thus creating hard times to lay the foundation 
for the defeat of the party of the people. 

The business of the United States is based on credit and confi- 
dence, and the organized plutocracy, with its control of vast agencies 



4 APUKKSS H\ HON. HOIJl'.HI" I., ()\\•l•".^'. 

of publicity, has hud the power to paralyze confidence and to shake 
the credit system of the United States to its foundations, to frighten 
business men, keep them out of new enterprises, and make them 
ultraconservatiA'e in conducting current business. These causes 
weighed heavily in the scale to further discourage the country as 
AA'^il^on's administration began. 

The previous depression, due to Republican mismanagement, was 
intensified by these Aast influences, but as the militant Democracy 
moved forAvard in its high and nolde purposes, Avith the reduction of 
the monopoly features of the Republican prohibitive tariff, putting 
the necessities of life on the free list, establishing the inc( me tax, 
stabilizing the financial and commercial world Avith the Federal re- 
serve act, abating the powers of private monopoly with the Clayton 
bill, protecting small business men against unfair practices, do- 
mestic or foreign, by the great monopolies, through the Federal 
Trade Commission act, the glorious sun of Democratic prosperity 
burst through the clouds of doubt and distrust, showing the Ameri- 
can people that a true democratic government, described by Lincoln, 
of the people, by the people, and for the people, will give them for- 
ever the highest form of prosperity, the greatest measure of happi- 
ness, and will best promote the welfare of mankind. 

WHAT HAVE WE DONE? 

We ha\e reformed the monopoly promoting features of the Repub- 
lican prohibitive tariff. 

We have put the necessaries of life on the free list. 

We have removed its injustices and discriminating inequalities. 

We have opened wider the gates to foreign commerce, both import 
and export — and imports and exports in the truest and highest sense 
measure each other. 

We have diminished the per capita taxation Avhich bears too se- 
verely on the poor through the reduction on necessities, and ])laced 
the tax more largely upon luxuries and upon the wealth which should 
meet a lai'ger i);ii't of the necessary cost of government. 

We have established a progressive income tax and placed the taxes 
more largely upon those who can bear the taxes without suffering, 
and to that extent taken the taxes from the shoulders of the very 
poor, who can not stand taxes except at the expense of sufl'ering. 

We have been faithful in our promises to reform the tariff, and it 
has not resulted in diminishing our revenues or our exports or our 
imports, Avhich have both increased substantially apart from war 
munitions. 

It has been demonsti-ated overwhelmingly that the tariff sched- 
ules are much higher now than the difference in cost of production 
at home and abroad since the tariff schedules have been put upon a 
revenue-producing basis, and that the incidental protection afforded 
by a reveinie-producing tariff is more than sufficient to protect every 
honest and legitimate industry. 

The proof of the fact that the Republican tariff laws were grossly 
unjust, and were not based on the difference in the cost of produc- 
tion at home and abroad, was completely demonstrated by me in the 
tables prepared in April, 1909, will suffice to show the gross false pre- 
tense of the last two Republican tariff acts. 



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6 ADDKKSS BY HON. HOBKKT J.. OWEN. 
SCHEDULE A CHEIVriCALS, ETC. 

This table shows that the percentage of hibor to the vahie of the 
product in Schedule A, for example, by the very figures given by 
the Finance C'ommittee itself, is only 7.5 per cent, while the proposed 
schedule is 28 per cent — four times as high as the entire labor cost 
involved in the product. 

SCHEDULE B GLASSWARE, ETC. 

In like manner in Schedule B the total labor cost is 36 per cent. 
The total labor cost in Europe, if it Avere half as much, would leave 
the net difference in labor cost only 18 per cent, while the proposed 
tariff is 48 per cent for Schedule B. 

SCHEDULE C — METALS, ETC. 

In like manner Schedule C exhibits a total labor cost of 20 per 
cent. The difference in this labor cost and the European labor cost, 
accepting the statement of the chairman of tlie Committee on Finance 
that the^labor cost in Europe is only half as much, would be 10 per 
cent, and the difference in labor cost for which the protection might 
be required would not exceed 10 per cent, but the proposed rate is 31 
per cent — three times as high as it ought to be for protective 
purposes. 

SCHEDULE D — WOOD, ETC. 

In Schedule D the total labor cost is 27 per cent, and the difference 
in labor cost in this country and abroad would be 13i per cent, not 
counting freight, which would be as much more in favor of this 
heavy material; and here the proposed rate is 11 per cent, and this 
schedule ought to be absolutely free in order to protect our forest 
and conserve our natural resources otherwise, as well as supply our 
people with cheap building material and our publishers with cheap 
paper. 

SCHEDULE E — SUGAR, ETC. 

In Schedule E, sugar, etc., the labor cost is 5.0 per cent; the 
difference in labor cost would be less than 3 per cent, which would 
be more than offset by freight, and here the proposed duty is 05 per 
cent, giving a complete monopoly to the Sugar Trust, which takes 
nearly all the profit, leaving a small fraction of the profit to the 
sugar planter. 

And so it goes for all the 14 schedules. 

PERMANENT NONPARTISAN TARIFF COMMISSION. 

To make assurance doubly sure of safeguarding every legitimate 
interest in the United States^ the Democracy is now about to estab- 
lish a permanent nonpartisan tariff commission of experts Avho shall 
give Congress and the President authoritative and reliable informa- 
tion with regard to every industry and enable the laws to be written 
in such a way as to develop to" the highest extent our industrial 
activities and our domestic and foreign commerce. 

We have provided a means, and will perfect a means, through the 
Federal Trade Commission and other agencies, to safeguard Ameri- 
can industry against unfair practices, foreign or domestic. 



ADDRESS BY HON. ROBERT L. OWEN. 7 

The Democracy realizes that foreign nations can only in the long 
run pay for our exports by their exports, and that our exports Avill 
be ultimately measured by our imports, and therefore that we should 
encourage our imports from other nations, especially of those things 
which we do not ourselves produce to the entire satisfaction of our 
people, in order that we may enlarge our exports to other nations 
and stimulate, therefore, the industrial activity of our American 
Republic. 

This should be done by reciprocal agreements through mobilized 
tariif schedules, subject to Executive arrangement under a fixed 
legislative policy. 

The Underwood law produced $43,565,235 more revenue in 1915 
than was produced under the Payne- Aldrich bill in 1912. 

The income-tax law, passed by the Democratic Congress, which puts 
the burden of taxation where it belongs, is estimated to produce 
$100,000,000 for the current fiscal year. 

The passage of the Underwood bill, with its income tax, was 
violently resisted by the Republican Party — the servants of privi- 
lege — through a prolonged filibuster, and the income tax was vio- 
lently opposed and denounced by the high priest of the Republican 
Party— the Plon. Elihu Root of New York — on the astonishing 
ground that it Avas unfair to "my people" — words which were pri- 
vately expunged from the Congressional Record and which made 
Senator Lewis's reply in the Record to his use of this term "my 
people " seem without point. 

I should like to inquire who are the persons whom the great Re- 
publican bugler describes as " my people." 

The Democracy, when it speaks of " my people " speaks of all of 
the people, rich and poor alike, and not merely of those who are able 
to pay an income tax. Even in New York State there are over 
nine millions of people who do not pay an income tax, and a com- 
paratively small number who do pay an income tax. Mr. Elihu 
Root received his commission to represent all the people of New York 
as their United States Senator, and he should think of them all as 
" my people," and if he w^ere a good Democrat that would be his point 
of view. 

THE FEDERAL RESERVE ACT. 

Under the crafty manipulation of the servants of privilege acting 
through the Republican Party, the funds of the people on deposit 
with the national banks were ccncentrated by the national-bank act, 
first, in 40 reserve cities, then in 3 central reserve cities, then in 
New York City, and the funds so concentrated became a gigantic 
agency for the control of the credit system of the United States, 
wdiich were thus guided by statute law into the hands of a very small 
group of bankers, who could, and Avho did, by expanding credits, 
make a bull market, and by contracting credits make a bear market 
at their pleasure, through which they could and did enrich them- 
selves and their parasites at the expense cf the unlearned and un- 
wary. Through this power the panic of 1907 was brought about by 
a conspiracv "resulting in the destruction of many financial and 
commercial lives, widespread dislocation of exchanges and of credits, 
further strengthening of monopolies, as United States Steel absorbed 



8 ADDKESS bV HON. ROBERT L. OWEN. 

Tennessee Coal & Ircn, wholesale depression, and losses estimated 
by Senator Aldrich himself on the floor of the Senate, in January, 
1908, as costing the American people over two thousand millions of 
dollars. It was an underestimate. I demanded of Senator Aldrich 
an investigation of this panic and its causes and its beneficiaries, and 
was refused. 

On the floor of the Senate on the 25th day of February, 1908, 1 
pointed out to him, as chairman of the Committee on Finance, that 
he and his colleagues had refused to accept an amendment to the act 
of 1900. which I had drawn and caused to be submitted to the United 
States Senate, and which would have protected this country against 
panic, and invited him on the floor of the Senate to challenge this 
statement, and he sat silent. (Cong. Rec, p. 2429.) 

When the militant Democracy came into power in 1913 it made 
me chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency of the 
United States Senate, and we immediately began the drafting of the 
Federal reserve act, W'hich the Democracy put upon the statute 
books over the violent and prolonged filibuster of the Eepublican 
Party on December 23, 1908. This act established 12 Federal reserve 
banks, concentrated the reserves of the banks of the country in 12 
Federal reserve banks, made these reserves mobile and available for 
the business interests of the country, put these vast reserves under 
the power of the Government of the United States, acting through 
the Federal Reserve Board, and took these reserves out of the con- 
trol of Wall Street. 

It did more — it provided a basis for an expansible, elastic cur- 
rency based on commercial paper, with the credit of the United 
States behind the Federal reserve currency. 

By establishing confidence, in our banking system, a large volume 
of gold and currency has been brought from hoarding, and from 
October 21, 1913, to December 31, 19i5, the bank deposits increased 
$2,056,374,124, of which increase $1,498,978,697 was the increase in 
individual deposits, and $557,395,427 was the increase in bank deposits 
with other banks. 

It made a future financial panic or currency panic impossible. It 
made stable for the first time in the history of the United States the 
credit system of the people of the United States and has lowered the 
interest rates below any point previously known in the United States. 

It gave business men a right to know that they could receive legiti- 
mate credit in legitimate business without fail at all times, and 
therefore encouraged every enterprising man to feel he could expand 
bis business with safety and could begin new enterprises without 
the deadly danger of financial panic. The consequence has been that 
as soon as the people of the United States realized the value of this 
system they began to enlarge their lines of activity, to open new 
enterprises, and an era of prosperity has now begun which will never 
again be destroyed by a financial panic. Under any system impi-ovi- 
dent, reckless business men will be driven to individual lif<uidation, 
but never again will the banks of the country, from Concord to Los 
Angeles, be closed in a day for lack of currency, as occurred October 
21, 1907, and never again will business men justly entitled to credit be 
denied credit as under the plutocratic rule of the Republican Party. 

This act has brought our interest rates to the' lowest point in our 
history. The Federal reserve act opened up the whole world to the 



ADDKESS BY HON. KUJiEKT I.. OWEN. 9 

credit system of the United States, authorizing the establisliment by 
American banics of foreign branches, thus affording for the first time 
responsible banking and credit agencies tlirough which American ex- 
porters and importers could do business throughout the world through 
responsible American agencies. 

The Federal reserve act was passed over the organized sj'^stematic 
opposition of the Eepublican Party, backed by the Wall Street banks 
and all their powers. 

The great banks of New York, manned by very human beings, nev- 
ertheless perform a magnificent function in our economic life, and are 
entitled to receive the most respectful and considerate attention, and 
they were given the most respectful and considerate attention by the 
Democracy in the writing of this Magna Charter of credits, but the 
control of the banking system of the United States was taken out 
of their hands, where it did net belong, and put in the hands of the 
people of the United States, where it did belong, in spite of their 
protests and in spite of the filibuster of Mr. Elihu Root's Kepublican 
Party, and even of JNIr. Elihu Root himself. 

I rejoice to know that while the Republican Party has been under 
the control and guidance of organized human selfishness and private 
privilege, that nevertheless the true spirit of the Demccracy is mov- 
ing the hearts of a respectable number of Republican leaders and of 
millions of Republican citizens, whose interest in the common good 
and whose patriotism is as great as that of any Democrat. 

THE CL.\YT0X ANTITRUST BILL. 

The DeuK^cracy promptly amended the Sherman Antitrust xVct, 
which was deficient in many respects, and made unlawful various 
practices which, as a rule, singly and in themsehes, were not covered 
by the Sherman Act. Tt seeks to prevent the creation of illegal 
trusts, conspiracies, and monopolies in their incipiency and before 
consumaticn. It makes unlawful discrimination in prices for the 
purpose of wrongfully injuring or destroying the business of com- 
petition. It makes unlawful various monopoly-promoting contracts, 
holding companies, and interlocking directorates. It removes labor 
from the commodity class and gives the American laboring man the 
greater measure of industrial freedom, for which he has so long 
strived, and is looked upon by wage workers of the United States as 
the new Magna Charter for labor. 

It does not prevent combinations of capital, but only those prac- 
tices injurious to the general welfare and the common good. 

Against this bill the Re]iublican Party violently protested and 
filibustered. The Democracy forced its passage. 

THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION ACT. 

The Federal Trade Commission act was created not for the pur- 
pose of harassing business, not for the purpose of instituting long 
legal proceedings, but to bring quick relief against unfair prac- 
tices, to protect the small business man and small business enter- 
prises against the ruinous cut-throat competition of the big fellows 
against the little fellows, and provide a convenient administrative 
agency to stop unfair practices and to advise business men, and help 
them in legitimate enterprise as against predatory and vicious prac- 
tices. 



10 ADDRESS BY HOK. KOBERT L. OWEN. 

The Federal Trade Commission is in a position where it will be 
able to discover unfair practices and unfair competition of foreign 
competitors and prevent it. 

This act was violently opposed by Mr. Root's Republican Party. 

THE SEA mam's ACT. 

No better estimate of the value of this great act liberating the 
toilers of the sea from substantial slavery can be presented than was 
stated by the Secretary of Labor: 

In the struggle of the centuries gone l)y, step by step, all classes of labor, 
save one, have achieved a measure of freedom, until in this country workmen 
are no longer compelled to work against their will or by physical force to fulfill 
a civic contract of labor. The single exception is the seamen of the world, 
including those of the United States. After a legislative struggle of more than 
20 years the seaman's bill was enacted into law by the Sixty-third Congress, 
and the last vestige of serfdom by legal requirement was thereby wiped from 
our statute books. The seamen are free men now and are able to stand erect 
before the world, the owners of themselves and their own labor power. 

This act — 

not only says to the American shipowner that American seamen shall be free 
to leave their vessel when the vessel is in a port in this country, but it says to 
the foreign shipowner. When your seamen come into American ports the vei*y 
fact that they are in our waters and under our jurisdiction makes them free 
men. 

This bill will ultimately inure to the benefit of the American ship- 
owner, as it Avill compel the oAvners of foreign vessels entering our 
ports to pay their seamefi salaries in proportion to the salaries de- 
manded by American seamen, otherwise they run the risk of losing 
their crews. Thus a potent factor in the suppression of our mer- 
cantile marine will have been removed, the high labor cost to Ameri- 
can shipowners in competing with foreign-owned vessels being a fac- 
tor of some competitive importance when competition is very close. 

This bill provides for safety at sea for passengers and for crews; 
that the crew must understand the language of its officers, the lack of 
which has been responsible for some deadl}' disasters at sea. 

This bill was supported by Progressive Republicans, who deserve 
every credit for doing so. The act has not resulted in harm. On the 
contrary, because of this act, the act opening to American registry 
foreign-built ships and other liberal provisions, the American mer- 
chant marine is now growing by leaps and bounds. Every American 
ship3'ard is taxed be^'ond its capacity, and the xVmerican flag is 
already flying at the mast of hundreds of thousands of tons of 
American bottoms in excess of 1912, when the Republicans Avent 
out of powder. It has been repeatedly claimed that the Pacific 
Mail Steamship Co. was forced out of business because of the, en- 
actment of the seamen's law. The records of the House Com- 
mittee on Merchant Marine proved that statement to be without 
foundation. The vessels are still under the xVmerican flag, trans- 
feri-ed to the Athtntic. where business Avas more profitable because 
of the European Avar, and Avhen they Avere sold on the Pacific more 
trade Avas being offered to the vessels than they could possibly carry. 

All these bills — the tariff bill, the Federal reserve act, the Clay- 
ton bill, the Federal Trade Commission bill, the seaman's act — 
have had one purpose — the promotion of the common good, the 



ADDRESS BY HON. ROBERT L. OWEN. 11 

abatement of monopoly, the betterment of mankind, the lowering of 
the cost of living, and the greater happiness of all our people, 
Democrats and Republicans alike, and the Hoot Republicans fought 
them every one. 

THE SHIPPING BILL. 

The strenuous effort of the Democratic administration to pass a 
Government-owned shipping bill for the purpose of naval reserve, 
sadly needed, and for the purpose of establishing new lines of com- 
merce to South America, and to obtain some just standard for freight 
charges, was defeated bv the violent opposition of the Root Repub- 
lican's and a few disaffected Democrats. We hope to pass an im- 
proved bill on this line this session of Congress. 

PANAMA TOLLS ACT. 

The law repealing free tolls to the Shipping Trust through the 
Panama Canal and the recognition of our treaty obligations to 
Colcmbia and Great Britain was an( ther great Democratic per- 
formance. We had a ri^ht to compel those who used the canal, 
built with the money of the people of the United States, to pay a 
reasonable tax for the use of that great international improvement, 
and we had no right to violate our treaties relative thereto, as the 
Republicans had done for the sordid advantage of the unscrupulous 
coastwise Shipping Trust, and the Democrats in repealing this law, 
which had violated our treaties, put the honor and integrity ot the 
United States back on the high plane it should always occupy. 

SMITH-LEV-ER AGRICULTURAL EXPANSION ACT. 

The Democrats passed the Smith-Lever agricultural extension act, 
systematically promoting agriculture, thereby increasing the Ameri- 
can food supply, giving greater value to the farm lands ot the 
country, cheapening food products to the people ot the linited 
States."^ Under it thousands of farm demonstrators are stiniulatmg 
and directing the agricultural development, husbandry, agricultural 
economics, and household economics on millions of farms, ihis 
was a magnificently useful act of far-reaching consequences. 

THE LOBBY IN WASHINGTON. 

The act of the Democracy in driving the organized lobbies out of 
Washington City and from the Halls of Congress should not be 
forgotten. 

DIRECT ELECTION OF UNITED STATES SENATORS. 

Nor should it be forgotten that it was the Democracy which 
finally compelled the ])assage of the constitutional amendment tor 
the direct election of United States Senators by popular vote, thus 
taking Senators from under the undue influence of those who could 
unfairly influence legislatures to elect the servants ot privilege, as 
in the Lorimer case. 



12 ADDRESS BY HON. ROBERT 1.. OWEN. 

WORLD-A\'IDE PEACE TREATIES. 

Through the Demccracv treaties intended to promote the peace 
of the world were negc tiated with nearly all the great nations of 
the world, and through the Demccracy will ultimately be estab- 
lished the peace of the world on the basis of human In-otherhcod, 
justice, and equity. These treaties were negotiated with Great 
Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Switzer- 
land, Denmark, Portugal, Netherlands, Persia, Greece, Argentma, 
Brazil, Chile, Guatamala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Costa 
Eica, Uruguay. l*eru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Panama, China, San 
Domingo, and"^ Salvador, and their ccnsummation is a clear indica- 
tion of the high and noble purpose of the Democracy to promote 
and establish throughout the world an enduring peace. 

THE RURAL CREDITS BILL. 

So great had my respect and confidence for your splendid Senator 
from New Hampshire, Senator Hollis, grown by my association with 
him in writing the Federal reserve act, that I sought him as chairman 
of a subcommittee to develop the rural credits bill, and he has per- 
formed this service with a rare ability and with a most admirable 
exercise of an untiring industry. The Nation is profoundly in- 
debted to Senator Hollis for his' great work in perfecting this bill. 

Immediately after the Democracy came into power it appointed 
subcommittees to work out a plan for rural credits, to give citizens 
engaged in the agriculture of the Nation cheap money on long time, 
to enable the farmers and stockmen of the country to more ade- 
quatelv fulfill their obligations in furnishing the food supplies and 
the raw materials for the American people. This bill has no^y been 
presented to both Houses, and will become an act at this session of 
Congress, with the support of very many patriotic Republicans, who 
appreciate its very great value. 

PHILlPriNE BILL. 

At this session of Congress the liberation of the Philippine people 
will be provided for, having passed the Senate and been reported 
CO the House, relieving the United States of the dangerous responsi- 
bility for the peace and happiness of far-removed alien, foreign 
people, and turning over to them their own self-government under 
conditions which we have learned by our own experience will pro- 
mote their happiness and establish for them a safe and enduring 
basis of self-government. 

PENDING MEASURES ON PREPAREDNESS. 

The Democracy is now engaged in passing many measures for 
safeguarding the' interests of Uie United States by adequate prepa- 
ration against possible foreign aggression tlirough the building up 
and enlargement of our Navy, through the building up and strength- 
ening of our Army, the auxiliary naval merchant-marine act, the 
buildins of an armor plant, to be owned by the people of the United 
States, thus relieving the people of the Uni'ted States from the danger 



ADDHESK BY HON. ROBERT L. OWEN. 13 

of being compelled to rely upon private persons to furnish the armor 
for our war vessels and enabling the Government to obtain the armor 
plate at actual cost, and many auxiliary steps are being promoted by 
the administration. 

EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATION NAVY DEPARTMENT. 

Capt. J. S. McKean, office of the Chief of Naval Operations, made 
the following statement before the House Naval Committee : 

We have made more real progress In tlie lust two years than in any previous 
five-year period in my experience in the navy. I don't think I have ever known 
a time wlien everylxxly in the service, from top to bottom, was working as hard 
with tlieir heads and hands to prepare the tleet for active service. 

The Wilscn administration authorized in two years $70,000,000 to 
be spent on the chief fighting force of the Navy, as against $26,000,- 
000 authorized during the last two years of the Taft administration. 
The five dreadnaughts authorized under Wilscn will mount 36 more 
14-inch guns than the two authorized under Mr. Taft, and the pres- 
ent pre gram of the Demccrac}' will make abundant provision for 
strengthening the Nav}^, and doing it under the most economical con- 
ditions. By securing ccmpetition the present Secretary of the Navy 
saved $1,07 7,"210 on one contract for projectiles and over a million on 
armor plate, and the projectile people and the armor-plate people 
criticize him severely. Take, for instance, the cost of powder, Avhich 
was sold at a dollar a pound in 1907, and is being sold to European 
powers at nearly this price now, is being manufactured by the Secre- 
tary of the Navy for 31: cents a pound. The powder people iiatu- 
rall}^ despise him. 

The Government, which, under the Republican system, was com- 
pelled to pay $125 per ton for armor plate, can manufacture it at 
$230 per ton under the estimates of Secretary Daniels. The armor- 
plate people detest him. 

He Avickedly abolished intoxicants from the battleships where 
sober, steady hands are needed. The liquor interests hate him. 

The enemies Secretary Daniels has thus made have caused him to 
be viciously denounced in the plutocratic press. We love him for the 
enemies he has made. 

The Secretary has opened up all the smaller navy yards and has 
them all actively at work, and is expanding the larger navy yards. 
Your city of Portsmouth can testify to the splendid development of 
the navy yards, for your own has almost doubled its capacity and its 
force of men over that of the Taft administration. 

No previous Secretary ever so encouraged and strengthened the 
War College at Newport as has Secretary Daniels, which now has a 
president and a staff of 10 officers instructing an attending class of 32 
officers and more than 400 others by correspondence. 

The Secretary of the Navy has so far developed the radio telegraph 
and telephone service that he can communicate with our ships 
throughout our entire waters from his office directly, and for its size 
there is no navy in the world that has reached a higher state of 
perfection. The number of our midshipmen has been increased 50 
per cent under the new administration, by allowing each Senator 
and Member of the House three appointments instead of two. 

Under the improved service desertions have diminished, and en- 
listed men reenlisting is very greatly stimulated, so that 85 per cent 



14 ADDRESS BY HON. ROBERT L. OWEN. 

of the enlisted men are now reenlisting. Oiir enlistments in the Navy 
have increased over 6,000 since the new administration. The Navy 
has developed in the past year the perfection of the wireless tele- 
phone so far that it has telephoned from Arlington to Mare Island, 
Cal., 2,500 miles away, by wireless. 

The Secretary has established a Naval Consulting Board, with 
Thomas A. Edison as its chairman, and 22 members, selected from 
the 11 leading engineering and scientific societies, whose talents and 
patriotism are now at the service of the country, and engaged in 
eagerly working up a plan for a great research laboratory. They are 
organizing scientific committees in each State, to cooperate in putting 
at the service of the Government every available industrial resource 
and invention. 

In the office of the Secretary of War a like activity is proceeding. 

AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 

Under Secretary Houston, a man of very great ability, learning, 
and industry, and his splendid Assistant Secretary, Carl Vrooman, 
the services'^ of that great department has been stimulated to the 
highest efficiency. It would take a volume to properly describe the 
value of these services to agriculture, horticulture, and animal 
husbandry and farm economics under the new spirit of democracy 
and cooperation with the State authorities. Millions of farms are 
under this influence and values will be developed in excess of previous 
administrations that will go into hundreds of millions in the im- 
proved crops of cotton, corn, wheat, and other grains and in the 
products of animal industry. 

DEPARTMENT OF STATE. 

Through the Department of State, the Democracy has established 
treaties looking to amity and peace with nearly all the great nations 
of the world. Recently peace has been established in Haiti, bringing 
this Republic, so long turbulent and disordered, into new conditions 
of peace and happiness, under the friendly guidance of our Republic. 
The treaty with Nicaragua, just confirmed by the Senate, gives the 
United States future control of interoceanic canal rights and a mag- 
nificient naval station in Fonseca Bay. 

The greatest accomplishment, through the Department of State 
and through the Treasury Department, and through the President, 
has been in building up a sentiment of mutual respect and confidence 
between the Republics of Central and South America Avith the United 
States, thus promoting a spirit of good will and cooperation and of 
commerce, which will be alike beneficial to North and South America, 
and which will more firmly than ever establish the principle of the 
Monroe doctrine as a Pan American i-esponsibility. 

The Department of Foreign Trade Advisers of the Department 
of State has been efficiently developed, and is rendering the most 
important services in gathei'ing information and advice on com- 
mercial subjects and distributing the same so as to promote and 
protect our foreign conunerce. Its activities in the present war have 
been worth very many millions to our people, and will be still more 
useful as this service is developed in promoting the common good. 
Over $20,000,000 of commerce was released from entanglement due 



ADDRESS BY HON. KOBERT L. OWEN. 15 

to the war, upon applications filed between September and November, 
1915. 

HE HAS KEPT US OUT OF WAR. 

Perhaps the greatest accomplishment, the one for which our people 
are more deeply grateful than any other, is that the President has 
kept us out of war and in a condition of profound peace while all 
the world beside seems torn with war or internal violence. 

Under extreme provocation the President has nevertheless used 
his great powers and his great influence against any act that would 
involve the people of the United States in war either with the weak- 
est of our neighbor nations or with the strongest nations of the world, 
such as Great Britain and German}', both of whom, because of the 
excitement and stress of a life-and- death struggle, have disregarded 
in various ways the international law and our legal rights. 

An administration less wise and less thoughtful might easily have 
been swept into war with Mexico, with Germany and Austria, or 
with Great Britain and its allies. 

In spite of the amazing and magnificent accomplishments of the 
Democracy since it came into power in March, 1913, the great Re- 
publican trombone — the Hon. Elihu Root — takes occasion to sound 
the keynote of the Republican Party's Avar song for 1916 before the 
NeAV York Republican convention on February 15, 1916, with a puny 
whine about Mexico and Belgium and Germany. 

Does he deny the magnificent accomplishments which I have 
pointed out? Not at all. 

Does he give any credit to the Democracy for its glorious work? 
Not a word. 

He entertains the country by charging that the depression in 
business when the Democratic administration came in was due to 
the Democratic tariff, although the depression existed before the 
election took place in 1912, and was emphasized by the calamity 
propaganga of the plutocratic press, and has been noAv removed 
by a condition of Avidespread prosperity since the Democratic legis- 
lation became effect Ia^c. He makes the unthinkable charge that the 
Democracy is hostile to American business and to the men who con- 
duct it. Almost his entire address is directed at a criticism of the 
foreign policy of the Democracy. 

He argues that President Wilson should haA^e recognized the 
bloody assassin Huerta, Avho betrayed Madero, Avhen trusted by Ma- 
dero in charge of Madero's troops, and Avho had Madero and Suarez 
murdered that he might enjoy the presidential poAver vacated by his 
chief's cold-blooded assassination. President AVilson took a different 
position — that he would not recognize a man Avho had betrayed and 
assassinated his chief for the base purpose of seizing a position va- 
cated by such an assassination. 

Huerta's unspeakable villainy I described on the floor of the Senate. 
He was responsible for the murder of A'arious members of the Mexi- 
can Congress, and finally seized nearly the entire Congress by mili- 
tary force and put them and kept them in prison, while he had a 
false election, with stuffed ballot boxes, to make it appear that he 
Was the choice of the Mexican people, who were not permitted to 
vote their Avill. President Wilson was right in refusing to recognize 



16 ADDRESS BY HOK. ROBERT [.. OWKN. 

this political monster. President Wilson was right in not intervening 
in Mexico, torn as it was with internal dissension and revolution. It 
Avas the unanimous opinion of the representatives of the South Amer- 
ican Republics that intervention there would set a precedent which 
would make eA'ery South Amei^ican Republic regard the United States 
with, suspicion, aversion, and as a dangerous power which intended to 
absorb the Central and South American Republics, one by one, as Mr. 
Roosevelt had obtained the Panama Canal Zone in 1903, 1901, in dis- 
regard of our treaty rights with Colombia when Mr. Root was his 
confidential adviser as 'Secretary of War. The action in Panama 
greatly impaired the standing of the United States Avith the Central 
and South American Republics, and justly made us the object of 
their suspicion. 

The Democratic administration has tried to overcome this ex- 
tremely evil Republican inheritance by making a treaty with Colom- 
bia and by calling various Pan American conferences looking to 
the solidarity of tlie Central and South American Republics with the 
United States. The Democracy called in Argentina, Brazil, and 
Chili when we had the unhappy controA^ersy Avith Huerta. Democ- 
racy has now the Secretary of the Treasury en route to South 
Anierica to help cement tlie spirit of friendship and confidence 
between the United States and the South American Republics and 
undo the great harm done in the Panama case by Mr. Root's former 
deity. 

One would imagine from Mr. Root's speech that if he had had the 
power he would have interAcned in Mexico. 

The question of intervention in Mexico is not a new one. The first 
great Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, considered this mat- 
ter most carefully. His Secretary of State, William H. Seward, 
April (3, 1861, addressed the folloAvmg advice to Thomas Corwin, 
minister to Mexico, giving President Lincoln's vicAvs on intervention: 

For a few vears past the condition of Jlexico lias been so unsettled as to 
raise the question on both sides of the Atlantic whether the time has not come 
when some foreign power ought, in the general interest of society, to intervene, 
to establish a protectorate or some other form of government in that country 
and guarantee its continuance there. 

You will not fail to assure the Government of Mexico that the President 
neither has, nor can ever have, any sympathy with such designs, in Avhatever 
quarter thev may arise or whatever character they may take on. * * * 

The President never for a moment doubts that the republican system is to 
pass safely through all ordeals and proAe a permanent success in our own 
country, and so to be recommended to adoption by nil other nations. 

But "lie thinks, also, that the system everyAvhere has to make its way pain- 
fully through difficulties and embarrassments which result from the action of 
antagonistical elements which are a legacy of former times and very different 
institutions. „ , . , „ 

The President is hopeful of the ultimate triumph of this system over all 
obstacles as w^ell in regard to Mexico as in regard to every other American 
State ; but he feels that those States are nevertheless justly entitled to a greater 
forbearance and more generous sympathies from the Government and people 
of the United States than they are likely to receive in any other quarter. * * * 

The President trusts that your mission, manifesting these sentiments, will 
reassure the Government of Mexico of his best disposition to favor their com- 
merce and their internal improvements. 

I find the archives here full of complaints against the Mexican Government 
for violation of contracts and spoliation and cruelties practiced against Ameri- 
can citizens It is not the President's intention to send forward such claims 
at the present moment. He willingly defers the performance of a duty, which 
at any time would seem ungracious, until the incoming administration in 
Mexico shall have had time, if possible, to cement its authority. 



ADDRESS BY HON. ROBERT L. OWEN. 17 

«o tint Mr Boot had very good authority for his mvii attitude 
^vhen Secret IT of War, Secretary of State, and United States Sen- 
Ito^iinde^^^^^^^^^^ and Taft administrations, in not permitting 

any i^^Je™tion to be entertained because of the outrages of bandits 

' m^'^sJn^^tSt^as recently in the United States Senate he 
rebuked Senator Stone, who proposed intervention in Mexico He 
vigorously dissented from intervening m Mexico as a means of le- 
di?ssing injuries, and said: 

Qv.nnntliv witli tlie people of Alexico in tlieir distress, a just sense of the 

course. (Coniii. Rec, Apr. 20, 1911.) 

On his oath and responsibility as a Senator of the United States 
he urged the very course which'Mr. Wilson steadily pursued. As a 
Republican bugler he viciously denounces Mr. Wilson for taking the 
convle which Mr. Root, as a United States Senator, advised him to 

*^0n April 21, 1914 (Congl. Rec, p. 6985), Senator Root again 
denounced the idea of intervention in Mexico ^-^^'^^;^\^^Z^'^'';, 
sidering entering Vera Cruz and demanding a salute to oui flag 
for the Tampico outrage. He said : 

Tt is intervention, technically, hut it is war in its essence, tluit ^ve are to 

Ufe fS S?e's™^ of the action that we are to approve to-night ; and when 

of guns and the form and ceremony of a salute and nothmg else? 

Mr. Root strongly opposed our entering Vera Cruz ^f ^J^ the pun^ 
ishment of the insult bv the usurper Huerta. He voted 1 ot U 
aS our authorizing 'the President to use our forces m Mexico 
Anril 21 1914. (Cong. Rec, 7014.) ^ , -r> .. 

^My fellow countrynfen, on Saturday, April 25 1914, Senator Root, 
.t the annual banquet of the American Society of International Law 
a the TOkrd Hotel in the city of Washington, not only fid no 
denounce or even express his disapproval of President Wilson tor 
not intervening in Mexico, but he said : 

Rnt the President has acted upon his responsihility and upon his conscience 

we besrsei^e In ?oyS support of the Chief Magistrate, upon whom rests the 

''Si'H?.ven'wrtave a President in whose lofty character, in whose 
since? V of purpose in his genuine desire to do what is right, wise, patriotic 

S llfEe fVom Mm a"h, M™ coiiiln,; up wltb .llfterent envl,-onments and 

stand behind him in his leadership. 
S. Doc. 361, 64-1 2 



18 ADDRESS BY HON. ROBEET L. OWEN. 

When Secretary Bryan, immediately afterwards, at this banquet, 
advised them of the proposed plan of mediation with Hiierta, 
through Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, Senator Root expressed his 
delight that it avoided intervention. 

What a wonderful change has come over this distinguished states- 
man in so short a time. He now suddenly throws a political somer- 
sault and shakes his vehement fists in the face of Wilson, because 
Wilson has, since then, in effect, followed the advice of Senator Eoot 
and of Ex-President Taf t not to intervene in Mexico. 

I have no objection to this distinguished citizen changing his mind, 
but I warn American citizens that Mr. Root, who for decades has 
been advertised systematically ]\v the plutocratic press as a prophet, 
is not a reliable or responsible leader of public opinion. 

Mr. Elihu Root makes the shameless observation in his New York 
Republican keynote speech that — 

A study of the administration's policy toward Europe since .Tuly, 1914, reveals 
three fundamental errors : First, the lack of foresi,i;ht to make timely pro- 
vision for backing up American diplomacy by actual and assured military and 
naval force. Second, the forfeiture of the world's respect for our assertion of 
rights for pursuing a policy of making threats and failing to make them good. 
Third, a loss of the moral forces of the civilized world through failure to truly 
interpret to the world the spirit of American democracy in its attitude toward 
the terrible events which accompanied the early stages of the war. 

Whose lack of foresight is culpable except that of Mr. Root him- 
self, who was Mr. Roosevelt's Secretary of War and Secretary of 
State, and Mr. Taft's closest adviser, and his associates, who, having 
had control of the Government for all of these 12 consecutive years 
preceding President Wilson, had failed to provide what he now de- 
clares an adequate military and naval force? 

No one knows better than Mr. Root, who served as Secretary of 
War, that it takes years to build up an aglequate military and naval 
force. No one knows better than Mr. Root that the Wilson admin- 
istration was compelled to face in 1913 and 1914 a continuous fili- 
buster to get for the people of the United States the present legisla- 
tion to which the Democrac}' was primarily committed, and that the 
opportunity of service by the Democracy was resisted to the utter- 
most by Mr. Root and his associates, and its efliciency thereby greatly 
impaired, but that President Wilson, nevertheless, greatly stimulated 
the upbuilding of our Navy. 

The plain truth is that the gigantic European war for the first 
time brought to the attention of our people the danger to our inter- 
ests if we should be comparatively defenseless against very power- 
fully organized military or naval power. 

Mr. Roosevelt, in the Outlook of September 23, 1914, about two 
months after the war began, discussing the subject " World war, its 
lessons," stated that one of the main lessons to learn from that 
war w\as that — 

* * * Arbitration treaties, neutrality treaties, treaties for the erection 
of independent tribunals, treaties of all kinds, can do nothing to save a nation 
unless that nation is able to defend its own honor, its own vital interests. 

This is a lesson w^hich Mr. Roosevelt drew in August, 1914, from 
the present war. Mr. Roosevelt would hardly have charged the 



ADDRESS BY HON. ROBERT L. OWEN. 19 

Wilson administiation or the American people for not having 
learned this lesson before the cataclysm in Europe taught it. 

Mr. Koot would make the country believe that Mr. Wilson was 
unfaithful to American traditions because he did not protest against 
the violation by Germany of the neutrality of Belgium. _ 

The genius and hypocrisy of this crafty assault on President Wil- 
son is sufficiently answered by observing that Mr. Root himself was 
Secretary of State when The Hague conference of 1907 was held, 
and it was from Mr. Root that the American delegates received the 
instructions to make to the conference a declaration of America s 
policy, which covered every act and every convention which the 
American delegates signed. The declaration was as follows: 

Nothing contained in tliis convention shall be so construed as to require the 
United States of America to depart from its traditional policy of not intruding 
upon, interfering with, or entangling itself in the political questions of 
oolicv * * * of any foreign State; nor shall anything contained in the 
said convention be construed to imply a relinquishment by the United States 
of its traditional attitude toward purely American questions. 

Mr Root knew that Mr. Wilson had no right, under the fixed 
Amei'icon policy and practice of not entangling itself m foreign 
affairs to protest against this breach of the German-Belgian treaty. 
Mr Root, when Secretary, refused to interfere between Korea and 
Japan, notwithstanding the United States was bound by treaty to 
use its (^ood offices if other powers should deal unjustly or oppres- 
sively with either party to the Korean treaty. .Mr Root was right 
in the Korean case, and he was right when, in Washington City 
shortly after the outbreak of the European war, he indorsed the 
foreio-n policy of the President of the United States as then reported 
by the public press, and he is wrong now, when, as a Republican 
trumpeter, he denounces Mr. Wilson for not properly chastising Ger- 
many for its invasion of Belgium. Mr. Root, as Republican agi- 
tator is one thing and as Secretary of State is another. He is 
Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde. . -r. • i ^ t • i ^ ^^ 

President Taft followed the policy of President Lincoln of non- 
intervention in Mexico wisely and properly, and President 1 aft, at 
Morristown, N. J., praised President AVilson's Belgian policy, and 
said: 

While I svmpathize with the Belgians in this war, whose country, without 
any fault of' theirs, has been made a bloody center, I approve and commend to 
the fullest the attitude of President Wilson. 

Mr. Roosevelt, four days after the invasion of Belgium, in a 
speech in New York, said : 

We should be thankful beyond measure because we are Americans and not at 
war, 

and he urged support for the administration in securing peace and 
justice, and said nothing of any duty of the Government to protest 
against the invasion of Belgium, and seven weeks later m the 
Outlook, speaking of the delegation of Belgians who had ariived 
to invoke our assistance, he said: 

It is certainly eminently desirable that we should remain entirely ^eutral and 
nothing but urgent need would warrant breaking our neutrality oi taking sides 
one way or the other. 



20 ADDRESS BY HON. EGBERT L. OWEN. 

Of coiirse, it \Aonl(l be folly to jump into the gulf ourselves to no ji .od purpose, 
and very probably nothing we could have done would have helped Eelgiuui. We 
have not the smallest responsibility for what has befallen her, and I am sure 
that the sympathy of this country for the suffering of the men, women, and 
children of Belgium is very real. 

Nevertheless, this sympathy is comiiatible with full acknowledgment of the 
unwisdom of uttering a single word of official protest, unless we are prepared 
to make that protest effective ; and only the clearest and most urgent national 
duty would ever justify us in deviating from our rule of neutrality and 
noninterference. 

So that Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Taft, and Mr. Root all agree on the 
wisdom of President Wilson's Belgian policy while Mr. Root, as 
Republican bugler, discovers an issue with Mr. Wilson because he 
did not maintain American ideals in protesting against the violation 
of Belgian territory. Yet Mr. Root did not protest the invasion of 
the Transvaal or of Korea. 

He charges President Wilson with making threats against Ger- 
many in the submarine controversy and failing to make them good, 
thereb}^ forfeiting the respect of the world. 

President Wilson made no threats. He strenuously insisted that 
both Great Britain and Germany should respect the rights of the 
United States; that they should respect the international law; that 
he would insist on these' rights and hold them to strict account and, 
as a result, Great Britain and Germany have g(me far to respect these 
rights. 

Is this a threat of war? Could he have done less and discharged 
his duty in maintaining the neutrality of the United States and the 
rights of its citizens? 

President Wilson has had a most delicate and difficult diplomatic 
position to occupy. He has discharged his duty with rare fidelity, self- 
control, and wisdom, and Mr. Root engages himself in rocking the 
boat and trying to build up a large American opinion behind more 
drai^tic action, which would easil}' lead us into war. 

Mr. Root demands something more than words. He would " fol- 
low words by action." What action? There is but one action re- 
maining, and that act is war, which Mr. Root, in his first charge 
against Mr. AVilson, declares we are utterly unprepared for, and for 
which lack of preparation he is more responsible than any living 
man. Will he rush us into war for Avhich he and his associates have 
left us unprepared ? 

Mr. Root knows perfectly well that if he were charged with the 
responsibility of government, he Avould do everything in his ])ower 
to avoid war. just as INIr. Wilson is doing, but he thinks, as the great 
Republican trumpeter, he can by an appeal to passion, excite the 
people of the United States to desert Mr. Wilson and support Mr. 
Root, or some other advocate of war, for the Presidency. 

Neither the German allies nor the British entente would willingly 
do anything to forfeit the respect, confidence, or friendship of the 
American people. 

These unhappy, distressed, blood-choked nations in their life and 
death fratricidal struggle, may do many things, many regrettable 
things, affecting our rights, which we should weigh in the light of 
the distracting conditions under which these trespasses on our rights 
occur. America has the greatest opportunity the world has ever 



ADDEESS BY HON. EGBERT L. OWEN. 21 

known of promoting the foundations of world-wide peace, which 
shall be indistructible for all future time. The opportunity to render 
this service is of vast importance. If we keep out of this war we 
will not only protect the welfare and the advancement of 100,000,000 
of our own people, we will be able to serve the 300,000,000 in Europe, 
and more than half the human race now involved in this titanic 
struggle. 

Mr. Root would have us go to war. Mr. Root, with greater op- 
portunities of knowledge than many other men in public life, shows 
the utter weakness of the Republican Party when he makes the issue 
between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party the issue 
of an unprepared and unjustifiable war or of honorable peace. 

Why does he ignore the magnificent accomplishments of the 
Democracy in preserving the peace, the honor, the prosperity of the 
Nation? 

Why does he ignore the reduction of the monopoly tariif, the pas- 
sage of the Federal income tax, the Federal reserve act, the Clayton 
antitrust law, the Trade Commission act, the agricultural extension 
act, the seamen's act, and the conservation laws? 

Why does he ignore the splendid work done through the executive 
branches of the Democratic administration? He is silent on the 
magnificent accomplishments of both the legislative and executive 
branches under a faithful, energetic Democratic administration, and 
confines his keynote speech to charging us with the crime of keeping 
the country at peace. 

Mr. Root, as the mouthpiece and intellectual leader of the Re- 
publican Party, has been unable to find any just criticism of either 
the legislative' or executive policy of the Democratic administration. 
His refusal and failure to properly credit the Democracy for its 
splendid work may be taken as a measure of his lack of frankness 
and generositv and fair dealing toward the Democracy. It shows 
the utter weakness of the Republicans— that this statesman, con- 
fessedly the ablest of them all, can find no other issue with the 
Democracy than the issue of war v. peace. On that issue the people 
of the United States will prefer to follow the doctrine of the great 
Republican leader. Gen. Grant, at Appomattox, who at the end of a 
bloody campaign and after the American people had fully tasted the 
bitter fruits of war, said, " Let us have peace." 

On that issue we have the faith to believe our people of all shades 
of political opinion will support and triumphantly continue in service 
our noble President, who with infinite patience and immovable reso- 
lution has protected our interests as far as humanly possible, has 
preserved our honor unstained, and has kept us at peace. 

God bless the President of the United States ! 

O 



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